From Neekerbreekers to Nazgul: The Middle-earth Creatures Quiz

Tolkien's Middle-earth is full of strange and fantastic creatures. Some of them are like deities, others are monsters of legend, and some are known to walk Middle-earth even in the Third Age, when "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" take place. Take this quiz to see how much you know about the fauna of Tolkien's fantasy realm.

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Question 1 of 30

When Merry and Pippin meet Treebeard in Fangorn, what does he tell them the Ents are missing?

the Entwives

Sauron burned the lands where the Entwives kept their gardens during the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, and the Ents have been looking for them ever since.

the sun

their voices

Question 2 of 30

The Olog-hai are special trolls created by Sauron. How do they differ from the average troll?

They are cunning warriors and often lead troops of orcs into battle.

Their dark blue skin makes them nearly invisible at night.

Sunlight does not turn them to stone.

The Olog-hai fight during the War of the Ring — they are able to do so because they don’t turn to stone in sunlight.

Question 3 of 30

The shadowy demigod Ungoliant is the mother of all …

Balrogs

orcs

spiders

Ungoliant is a powerful spirit being of uncertain origin, similar in form to a massive black spider. She is the progenitor of Shelob and all the other evil spiders on Middle-earth. (To be specific, it's possible there are "regular" spiders in Middle-earth that aren't descended from Ungoliant, but all of the large, scary, evil spiders we meet in the novels are descended from Ungoliant.)

Question 4 of 30

Shelob lives in the mountains on the western edge of Mordor, guarding the pass known as …

Cirith Ungol

You can see Tolkien's linguistic design at work here — Cirith Ungol means "spider's cleft," using the Sindarin word for spider, "ungol," which also shows up in the name Ungoliant.

Imlad Morgul

Barad-dur

Question 5 of 30

What forest is infested with especially large and intelligent spiders, all of them the children of Shelob?

Mirkwood

The spiders that Bilbo and the dwarves encounter in Mirkwood are all the spawn of Shelob.

Fangorn

Lothlorien

Question 6 of 30

What does Sam call the loud, annoying insects the hobbits and Strider hear at night in the Midgewater Marshes?

dumbledors

neekerbreekers

They go "neek-breek," so he calls them neekerbreekers. Incidentally, there are biting insects in Middle-earth called dumbledors, from an old term for "bumblebee." Now go concoct an elaborate theory proving Middle-earth is really an ancient era of the Potterverse!

midgemockers

Question 7 of 30

Draugluin was the first of what kind of creature?

vampire

werewolf

Draugluin was created by Morgoth by placing an evil spirit in the body of a specially bred wolflike creature. All of the werewolves of Middle-earth are descended from him.

dragon

Question 8 of 30

It's probably a stretch to call Morgoth a "creature" since he's more like Middle-earth's version of Satan, but let's just go with it. He wielded a mighty weapon called Grond. What kind of weapon was it?

a sword

an axe

a mace

Grond was a massive war mace. In the Third Age Sauron builds a battering ram to bash down the gates of Minas Tirith and names it after Morgoth's mace.

Question 9 of 30

Huan was an immortal dog the size of a horse. According to prophecy, he could only be killed by what?

Morgoth

the greatest werewolf in the universe

When it comes to epic battles, it's difficult to top an immortal giant dog (which, by the way, could occasionally talk) fighting the greatest werewolf in the universe to the death. Huan vs. Carcharoth.

the fires of Mount Doom

Question 10 of 30

Speaking of Carcharoth, that magnificent werewolf, he spent the latter years of his life being burned from the inside by something he'd eaten. What was it?

the sword Glamdring

the One Ring

a Silmaril

Carcharoth bit off Beren's hand while Beren was holding one of the Silmarils. The magic jewels had been enchanted such that anything evil or mortal that touched them would be burned, much to Carcharoth's dismay.

Question 11 of 30

The undead creatures that nearly kill the hobbits in "The Fellowship of the Ring" are called what?

harrow gaunts

nightwraiths

barrow-wights

The barrow-wights inhabit barrows, the burial sites of ancient kings.

Question 12 of 30

The ghost army that Aragorn summons were spirits of men who had broken an oath to whom?

Aragorn

Isildur

In the Second Age, they promised Isildur they'd join him in battle against Sauron, but they didn't. He cursed them to walk Middle-earth as ghosts until they kept their oath, and Aragorn gave them the chance to do so.

Gandalf

Question 13 of 30

Where did Frodo, Sam and Gollum encounter undead creatures in the water, dead faces waiting to lure the living to drown with them?

the Barrow-downs

the Dead Marshes

The faces, sometimes known a corpse candles, inhabit the Dead Marshes, not far from the borders of Mordor.

Amon Sul

Question 14 of 30

What is the name of the mountain where the dragon Smaug lives?

Thror

the Misty Mountains

the Lonely Mountain

Smaug chased the dwarven king Thror out of the Lonely Mountain and took it as his home (along with all the dwarven treasure inside).

Question 15 of 30

The mightiest dragon to ever live was called Ancalagon the …

Wrath

Black

Ancalagon the Black fell in the First Age. Gandalf claims that even Ancalagon's dragonfire would have been insufficient to destroy the One Ring.

Lord of Dragons

Question 16 of 30

What kind of creature was Gothmog?

an Ent

a dragon

a Balrog

Gothmog was a Balrog.

Question 17 of 30

So what exactly is a Balrog?

an Ent that was burned by a magical fire in the First Age

a piece of the Void shaped by Morgoth

a celestial spirit called a Maia that Morgoth corrupted

The Maiar were spirits that went to Middle-earth to directly interact with it. A few of them took on corporeal forms, like Gandalf and Saruman. Many were corrupted by Morgoth, like Sauron and the Balrogs.

Question 18 of 30

What is the name of the Balrog that battles Gandalf in the Mines of Moria?

Melkir

Durin's Bane

After the First Age, all the Balrogs hid and hibernated in the deepest places of Middle-earth they could find. None of them ever awakened except one — when the dwarven king Durin VI "delved too deep" in his search for mithril, he awakened one. Its true name was lost thousands of years before, but it killed Durin and drove the dwarves from their kingdom and was ever after known as Durin's Bane.

Gorgoroth

Question 19 of 30

What type of creature is Quickbeam?

a troll

an Ent

Quickbeam is one of the Ents that Merry and Pippin interact with in Fangorn. The elvish name for him is Bregalad.

an orc

Question 20 of 30

After the War of the Ring, Eowyn gives the hobbits a bunch of gifts, including a horn much beloved by the Rohirrim. The horn supposedly came from the holdings of a creature named Scatha, killed far to the north centuries earlier. What kind of creature was Scatha?

a werewolf

a dragon

Scatha was a dragon that lived in the Grey Mountains. The ancestors of the Rohirrim killed him but fought with dwarves over Scatha's hoard (apparently they managed to hold onto the one horn though).

a Ringwraith

Question 21 of 30

These creatures are called Mumakil in the land of their origin and by the Gondorians. Sam Gamgee completely flips out when he first sees one. What does he call them?

oliphants

Sam is so delighted at the sight of an oliphant he even recites a poem about one.

miramel

mountain trolls

Question 22 of 30

The Kine of Araw were legendary oxen. One of them gave up a horn to Vorondil the Hunter, who made it into the Great Horn of Gondor. Who blew that horn for the last time before it was broken?

Boromir

Boromir blew the horn at Amon Hen when he was surrounded by Uruk-hai. It was heard hundreds of miles away in Minas Tirith, but Boromir was killed and the horn broken.

Aragorn

Denethor

Question 23 of 30

The Uruk-hai are "upgraded" versions of what kind of creature?

hobbits

orcs

Saruman's army is mostly composed of Uruk-hai, but Sauron also has elite Uruk orcs in his service. The exact nature of their creation is unclear.

trolls

Question 24 of 30

When Gandalf spots crowlike birds called crebain, he worries about what?

that they are the Nazgul in disguise

that a great battle has left many dead

that Saruman is using them as spies

Gandalf is already aware of Saruman's treachery and fears he is spying on the Fellowship with the crebain.

Question 25 of 30

What creatures do Gandalf, the dwarves and Bilbo encounter in the Misty Mountains hurling massive stones?

Nazgul

giants

The giants are apparently tossing stones for fun. Oddly enough, they appear nowhere else in Tolkien's exhaustive history of Middle-earth.

trolls

Question 26 of 30

As the Fellowship enters Moria, they are attacked by the Watcher in the Water using what part of its body?

its tentacles

The Watcher's true nature is unknown — all we see of it is the tentacles it uses to attack the Fellowship.

its venomous stinger

its mouth

Question 27 of 30

Gwaihir is the lord of what?

the Great Eagles

Gwaihir is the fastest of the Great Eagles — he's the one who rescues Gandalf from Orthanc. Deus ex macheagle?

the sea dragons

the Nazgul

Question 28 of 30

Orcs were created by Morgoth as dark, twisted counterparts of what race?

Maiar

hobbits

elves

Orcs are dark mockeries of elves.

Question 29 of 30

After the Nazgul lose their horses at the Ford of Bruinen, they switch to creatures called "fell beasts." What were they?

Great Eagles that were corrupted by Sauron

creations of Sauron made from "shadow-blackened flames"

featherless, reptilian flying creatures

The origin of the fell beasts is unclear. They appear vaguely similar to pterodactyls and are described as possibly being creatures "of an older world."

Question 30 of 30

What is the name of Gandalf's horse?

Greyshadow

Shadowfax

Shadowfax is the best among the Mearas, the exceptional breed of horses kept by the Riders of Rohan.